" The true
springs of morality lose their elasticity under the pressure of such
criminal selfishness; all pure and unselfish natures will fly away from
it in disgust.
To avoid such consequences attempts have been made by some recent
reformers of religion to establish morality upon the sentiment of
gratitude to the Lord. But it requires no deep consideration to find
that, in their endeavours to shift the basis of morality, these
reformers have rendered morality entirely baseless. A man has to do
what is represented to be a thing "dear unto the Lord" out of gratitude
for the many blessings He has heaped upon him. But as a matter of fact
he finds that the Lord has heaped upon him curses as well as blessings.
A helpless orphan is expected to be grateful to him for having removed
the props of his life, his parents, because he is told in consolation
that such a calamity is but apparently an evil, but in reality the
All-Merciful has underneath it hidden the greatest possible good. With
equal reason might a preacher of the Avenging Ahriman exhort men to
believe that under the apparent blessings of the "Merciful" Father there
lurks the serpent of evil.
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